Life & Pregnancy

I suppose I should finally blog about pregnancy for the family members that only keep up with us through this site.  First, my apologies to my Facebook friends...  Apparently, since I didn't share my husband's announcement photo (below), half of you didn't see it.

Around the 16 week mark, we decided to announce our new little bundle of joy.  Since we had just moved, we started with mailing announcement cards. I still enjoy the traditional cards/letters in the mail, so I insisted on doing some type of moving update (I removed the address for this post).

Please note the baby shoes... 

If we learned anything, it's that our family and friends don't seem to enjoy subtlety. Most opened it and thought, "I didn't know people still did moving cards" and left it at that. After a few brief conversations discussing why we wouldn't be unpacked until December, the need for further clarification became clear. So, below I give you our Facebook announcement. In big, bold, capital letters.

Note: No cats flew away in the process. 

So, pregnancy.  First, to all you moms, kudos.  My first trimester was actually relatively easy. I know some women would kill me for saying that, and I know I'm lucky. Other than fatigue, life wasn't too different.  Likewise, the second trimester was nice.  There's something comforting about feeling the little kicks and flutters while watching your belly grow.  But, now I'm at the third trimester.  Wow.  No one tells you about this other than "You're almost there!"  There's a whole new level of exhaustion... and the added weight makes moving around and sleeping tough. Plus, let's not forget about pregnancy brain. Teaching with pregnancy brain is a whole different ball game.  I've used so many sticky notes to try remembering some basic things. But overall, it's true, we're getting close.  One part of me is so excited to become a mom.  Another part of me is scared to death.  First, the basics: Giving birth, breastfeeding, "Will my body ever go back?!", etc. Of course, then there's the life after.  What's our view on discipline? Should we visit all of our friends now since we're no longer going to have such flexibility? Can we survive on no sleep? Can we afford this? Can we, can we, can we...? These questions seem endless. But, I don't know, I wouldn't think we're ready if we didn't start to doubt all the big things in this huge change. That's life. And, I know (or hope) we'll get through it just like everyone else.

I realized last week that I haven't taken a single picture of this growing belly.  With our schedules, we rarely get home before dark... and we're just tired. With this beautiful weather and a relatively free Saturday, I dragged Scott outside with the camera (once again, taking advantage of the lovely fence behind our house). Here's the belly.

If it ain't the cat's MEOW!

Believe it or not, that is an expression of disbelief.  Not sure of the origin, but it seems appropriate for this post.

To be honest, I'm almost embarrassed to be back here. It has been over a year.  In that time, I've moved to a new (but familiar) city, started and finished my second year of teaching fifth grade, been through two summers, traveled to the west coast for the first time (!), and have probably juggled life's big mysteries several times.  Okay, maybe not the last one... but we've been trying to map out our futures. Sorry, family, this isn't a post with a baby announcement.

I'd say the biggest announcement is that we've tackled third year medical school.
In short,

Pros:

• Schedule varies so much that while some months seem unbelievable, the lighter rotations are so welcomed
• Leading to more "us" time
• Had a relaxing spring break
• Clearer future ahead
• Step 1 is over! 
• Better stories

Cons:

• Step 2 is looming
• Residency is drawing close, so every step/misstep is a big deal
• Residency choices attract more stress
• Away rotations are coming up!

I've kept busy as well.  Last year, I tackled multiple jobs at once keeping me busy, but I'm ready to relax a bit.  I seem too young to say that, but I welcomed the opportunity to work from home most of this summer.  I feel like I can finally clean up and cook some decent meals. 

Here's an update on our boys.  Orie Porie is still...well... Orie, and the Floydster has quite the personality.  I recently bought them a new toy, and Floyd is downright aggressive, but Orie has trouble knowing how to play or gracefully snag the toy (he spends more time dancing in circles). 

 This is pretty lame and lacks detail for the first post back, but I hope to update more regularly and regain my four followers! Blog posts/Facebook tells me to update you of all my goals to keep myself accountable.  I'm going to shoot for one a week.  So, now it's up to you to hold me accountable.  Maybe we should start Scott & Selena Sundays.  Post Secret had some luck with their Sunday-only blog posts.
 Thoughts? (Disclaimer: Great start - it's Saturday.. but I'll be out of town tomorrow... ).

Happy early Birthday to my Mother in Law & and Happy late Birthday to my niece... and Happy early/belated Birthday to everyone else since I missed it over this past year.

I would love to hear from all of you,

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is fast approaching.  Thankfully, Scott and I are all set to go.  I just need to figure out a couple of desserts to bring to the family gatherings.  This year, we'll have four Christmas celebrations and one trip to the "Great White North."

Scott's on break, and it's been wonderful to have some quality time together. He successfully completed his first semester of second year. I have four days to go... but the students are so ready for break. They are getting frustrated with one another (lots of tattling) and have decided they no longer care what I'm teaching.   They were probably ready for break a week ago. So, this week will be a bit rough.

To get us all through the last work week before the holidays, here's a lovely homemade e-card form us. This wasn't some fancy website either.  Scott started from scratch using Photoshop.  Enjoy!

We went and got the kitties their Christmas present: cute sweaters, hats, and scarves.  Yep, we're those people.

I'm pretty sure they were slightly disappointed this Christmas.  Really disappointed (see previous post)

Love,

Decorating: Part II

If you remember from my last post, I was a little disappointed that I didn't have a Christmas tree this year.  I was making do, but Scott must have noticed our house was lacking a little bit of Christmas cheer (or just didn't want me whining on here about not having a Christmas tree). I got home on Friday night from work, and Scott said that he noticed Meijer had a 4 ft. tree on sale for $25.  Obviously, I was pretty psyched. Knowing that we'll be shifting from apartment to apartment over the next few years, a small tree seemed like a perfect choice. So, we went off and bought the tree.

We were slightly disappointed by the extremely small box... but it was a tree. Now, if you remember from last time, Scott insisted that we shouldn't have a tree because we have two little terrors, I mean, adorable kitties, and won't be home much to control them.  But, they were eager to help out.

We bought some ribbons for decoration and ornaments...  (Side note: Ribbons can make surprisingly nice tree toppers if I do say so myself) and got it all set up.   It's really short...and we're convinced it's not actually four feet... but it works perfectly for our cozy little house.

While all our ornaments could be categorized as our first Christmas since they're all new to us, we did need something to add that "special touch."

Our presents are finally all wrapped. :)

While this all looks nice and merry, it is time to give Scott some "I told you so" credit.  While he was very humble, he was 100% correct.  Trees and cats don't mix.  Apparently, they had their own Christmas party while we were sleeping.  I woke up the next morning and counted 15 ornaments on the ground.  Today, we at least lessened the count to 12.

Don't worry, though... tomorrow, I take our little guys to the vet to get castrated. Our tree may look pretty for a while, but I'm pretty sure our kitties will be very angry.  Right now, they are convinced we won't hurt them.  They're starting to just stare back when we try to spray them away from the counters, food, etc. It's pathetic.  They're spoiled.

I'm sure we'll be getting Floyd's glare quite frequently after this week..

On another completely unrelated topic, two weeks until my break and 5 days until Scott will be on break. :) We're looking forward to some much-needed husband/wife time.

Love,